Baseball: Neuqua Valley tops Waubonsie at four-game fundraiser
Those lonely players stranded on the bases were starting to become a problem for Neuqua Valley.
The Wildcats finally brought some of them home on Saturday.
They evened their DuPage Valley Conference baseball series against Waubonsie Valley with a 5-2 victory as part of the league's quadruple-header at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg.
The two-day fundraising event, which also featured Lake Park playing St. Charles North on Friday, was part of the "Step Up to the Plate" initiative to fight ALS, a fight that took an emotional turn last May with the death of former Wheaton Warrenville South player Brian Schnurstein.
Neuqua Valley (6-5, 4-4) and the Warriors (10-4, 5-3) put on a good show in the day's second game as the Wildcats, who trailed 2-0 through four innings against Western Michigan-bound left-hander Brandon Petersen, took control with 4 runs in the top of the fifth.
Will Drake, who launched a sixth-inning solo homer, tripled home a run and Tyler Cristofaro added an RBI double. A pair of costly errors added to the revolving door on the basepaths in the fifth.
After stranding nine runners in Friday's loss to the Warriors, and five through four innings on Saturday, the breakthrough was a relief for Neuqua Valley.
"We knew we had to start producing some offense," Drake said. "We have trouble with stranding runners. I think sometimes we're not as aggressive as we need to be at the plate."
On the heels of grabbing the 4-2 lead, Wildcats starter Austin Waeghe answered with a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth. Waeghe allowed only 5 hits and 1 earned run in a complete-game effort, striking out six and walking one.
"We just played really well," Waeghe said. "We knew we've been struggling the last few days. We just had to play together."
A run on an error gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead in the first and Nick Santoro singled in Joe Spano for a 2-0 lead in the third.
"We've got to find a way to be consistent," said Warriors coach Bryan Acevedo. "We haven't really done it here in the last week or so. We'v=e shown spurts of it. We've just got to do it day in and day out."
Naperville Central 2, Metea Valley 1:
Ryan Eiermann struck out 11 and walked none for the Redhawks (11-4, 5-2) in the DuPage Valley win in Schaumburg. Naperville Central broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning when Michael Nerger scored on a wild pitch. Blake Honda went 2-for-3 for Metea Valley (6-6, 3-5).
Naperville North 2, Wheaton North 1:
Matt Pillatsch allowed no earned runs for the Huskies (4-6, 2-3) in their DuPage Valley win in Schaumburg. Colin Rivard went 3-for-4 including an RBI single for Naperville North, which scored both runs in the third inning. Ryan Kocher had 2 hits for Wheaton North (7-4, 3-1).
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